In what ways, good or bad, have social media affected your life? That's the question we posed to students in grades 7-8 and 9-12 in Monmouth and Ocean counties in our monthly Student Voices essay and video competition. Just about everyone in middle school and high school is on social media — mostly Snapchat and Instagram. But that doesn't mean they all like it. As a matter of fact, the majority of students — those who won the competition and those who didn't — expressed reservations about it.

Emma Bogusz of Millstone Township Middle School, for instance, said "It’s engulfing the world, suffocating those who dive into it." Brenda Pulitano, of Point Pleasant Borough High School, wrote "Everyone needs to realize that the more we connect to the wifi, the more we disconnect with one another." Kevin McLaughlin of Spring Lake Heights Elementary School said he has "allowed this life-stealer, known as social media, to rob me of the precious hours, days, weeks, months and probably years of my childhood that I will never get back."

Here’s what third place essay winner for grades 7-8, Kevin McLaughlin, had to say about social media:

The constant buzzing from Snapchat, texts and Instagram updates feeds my addiction as I continue to fall into the tangled trap that has been set especially for me, a little mouse. I’m like a kangaroo always checking if my “baby” is in my “pouch” and safe.

I have allowed this life-stealer, known as social media, to rob me of the precious hours, days, weeks, months and probably years of my childhood that I will never get back. Although I can only blame myself for falling into the trap that social media has set, I can see that mostly negative results have come out of its use.

Of course, social media sometimes does benefit my life positively, like being able to connect with my friends and family without being with them all the time, but I believe it would be so much better if I could spend real time with them face to face.

Social media has taken over so much of my life. It has stopped me from spending time outside with my friends at the park throwing a ball around. Before I started using social media, I always played outside with my friends and my sisters, riding bikes, playing basketball, swimming in the pool. Now I am always waiting for my phone to buzz so I can respond to whoever texted me or check Snapchat for everyone’s most recent posts on their story.

I have sacrificed creating so many wonderful memories by using all my time scrolling through the endless feeds on Instagram or mindlessly watching pointless videos on YouTube. The information I receive from searching through the internet is much less useful than all the helpful life lessons I could have learned from real-life experiences.

Social media has taken a mostly negative role in my life, restricting me from going out into the world and instead just sitting at home thoughtlessly scrolling through endless Instagram feeds. Hopefully, with this new awareness, I can escape the cage social media has trapped me in and live life to the fullest in the world with friends and family. Maybe someday when I can restrain myself from checking social media constantly, I, the mother kangaroo, can release my baby from its pouch.